Automation is more than just letting technology solve problems for us. To truly succeed with automation, it's important to start with the right mindset.
Video (4:20 Minutes)
1. Reflect on Your Automation Options
Before diving into the “why and what” of automation, take a moment to reflect on the challenges you face in your day-to-day operations. Consider what could benefit from automation and how it might improve your workflow....Did you pause to reflect? Ya sure? Okay, I trust you!
Let's dive in and explore what automation can do for you and what needs to be set up from the beginning to make it effective.
2. Reasons and Benefits of Automation
With Rewst, automation connects your tools, enabling your team to focus on tasks that benefit from human expertise, rather than simply reducing headcount or cutting tools.
Save Time: Automate repetitive tasks to free up time for more critical work.
Reduce Mistakes: Automation ensures consistency and accuracy, minimizing human error.
Improve Decision-Making: Gain more robust data through integrations, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions.
Scale Your Business: Focus on tasks that truly require your attention and skill, allowing you to scale effectively.
3. Aharon's Automation Maturity Model
Consider where you are on the automation journey, and what will help you get to the next level. Take it step by step to make your journey smart and sustainable.
0. No Automation: All manual, all the time.
1. Basic Task Automation: Automating simple tasks that are currently handled manually.
2. Process Automation: Expanding automation to cover complex processes involving multiple tools.
3. Advanced Automation: Reaching a point where processes run smoothly in the background, with minimal oversight.
4. Scoping Your Automation
Once you’ve decided that automation is the way forward, the next step is to scope your automation projects effectively. Automation can generally be divided into tasks and processes.
Tasks:
Typically involve simple, repetitive actions that can be handled by one or two tools with a few steps.
Examples include funneling tickets into specific queues or updating multiple fields across tickets.
Processes:
These are more complex and involve automating a series of related tasks, often across multiple tools.
An example might be automating customer onboarding or offboarding, which involves several steps and interactions across different platforms.
5. Getting Started
For those new to automation, it’s recommended to start with smaller tasks that are easy to manage and can deliver quick wins. As you gain confidence, you can begin to tackle more complex processes. Here are a few ideas on types of tasks to automate:
High Volume Tasks: Tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming, like updating a large number of tickets.
Error-Prone Tasks: Actions where mistakes are common, such as selecting incorrect fields.
Compliance Tasks: Tasks that need to be performed consistently and reported on regularly.
Customer-Focused Tasks: Repetitive requests from customers, such as password resets or adding users to groups.
Action Items
Write down a task that's ripe for automation. Make sure the task or process is possible to automate and get clear on your goal (whether it's to save time, reduce errors, and/or any of the other benefits you just learned about). This will help you apply key concepts from this course to a scenario that's relevant to your MSP!
